Normandy Four Summit concludes with hope of full ceasefire in E. Ukraine by year-end

Ukraine and Russia have agreed on a full and comprehensive implementation of a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine before the end of 2019, announced leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany announced here on Monday evening.

“The parties commit to fully implementing the ceasefire, which will be consolidated by the implementation of all necessary ceasefire support measures, before the end of 2019,” said a joint declaration issued by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Following the talks called Normandy Four Summit, the four parties also agreed to support an implementation of an updated demining plan, and an agreement within the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on three additional disengagement zones, aiming at disengaging forces and equipment by the end of March 2020, said the declaration.

The TCG is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which aims to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, where conflicts between government troops and pro-independence insurgents have been raging since April 2014.

In the joint declaration, the Normandy Four leaders called on the TCG to facilitate an “all for all” prisoner swap by the end of the year.

Monday’s summit was the first of its kind in three years.

The last was held in Berlin in 2016.

This was also the first time that Putin and Zelensky met face to face since the latter was elected president earlier this year. After the four-party talks, the two leaders had a separate one-on-one meeting.

The four leaders hailed the meeting as a progress in reviving the peace process set down in the Minsk agreements, which, signed in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, are designed to peacefully end the conflict in Donbass.